Make Movies Blog

Those of us in the Animation industry have always known that robots understand humans, just as much as animals and objects can think and talk. It seems that Scientists - sceptics that they are - have just gotten around to knowing it as well, and are now building robots that do understand us. Have a look at http://money.canoe.ca/News/Sectors/Technology/2006/11/25/2488865-ap.html, and don't forget to pass it on to any robots you know.

Although there are some people who feel that people don't understand people, and that is why the world is in such a state, perhaps robots can explain to the rest of us why we do what we do.

Of course, we (people) are a bit afraid that robots will one day take over the world. It seems that animated creatures are on the way to doing just that, as this year has seen an explosion of animated movies, probably the biggest release of any year. But why?
It could be that computers have reached a point where they can produce an animated movie that is comparable in cost and time to a live-action movie. This is the spin-off from libraries that allow characters created for one movie to be recycled for others. It could be that audiences are tired of the big action-packed kill-em-all movies. On the other hand it could be just market forces. A hit animated movie has great merchandising potential, which is rare for a live-action film.

Animated shorts are not missing out either. Waste you time looking at some animated jokes.

Stan

Labels: Animation, Computer Animation, Computers, Future, Movies, Science

Monday, November 20, 2006

Animated Tattoos

There's a Marx Bros movie with Harpo opening his shirt to show an animated tattoo on his chest. I have a vague idea it was a dog coming out of its kennel.

the other day - for no reason at all - I recalled the scene, and wondered if tattoos could in fact be animated. I know that certain fish and reptiles can change the colour of their skin, so in theory, they might be able to do it, though they would have no reason to.

Of course, all I needed to do was look up 'Animated Tattoos' and find that not only has it been done, but the idea has been around for quite a while; I never cease to be amazed.

Not only can the tattoo be animated, it can be changed by reprogramming. The potential for these seems endless. Apart from identification, one might hire ones body out to advertisers like celebrity tennis players do with their clothes.
The next stage is to add a soundtrack. Anyone betting it can't be done?

At last it's happened!!! - once again. 3D has hit the TV screen.
Of course, anyone who follows these things will give a big sigh and list previous times it has happened; and I can't say that I've actually seen the latest system working, but you can find out all about it at:
http://tech.blorge.com/Structure:%20/2006/11/18/forget-hdtv-the-future-is-3dtv/

Galloping technology has reached a point where nothing seems impossible, and technhologists are now the Wizards and Prophets of the TechnoGods, so it was not such a surprise when I came across the article http://dilbertblog.typepad.com/the_dilbert_blog/2006/11/atheists_the_ne.html suggesting that Bill Gates might be considered as President.

I, for one would vote for him, if they could prove that electronic voting machines were foolproof.
It is not on the basis of his political acumen, but because I have a pretty good idea of his interests, and they are much closer to mine than any other president I know. But then I voted for Mrs Thatcher when she first came to power, and she had been a Chemist.

So I may end up settling for one of the latest Japanese Androids that look human enough to fool most people from a few feet away; have a vocabulary of around 40,000 words, and do as they are told (at least for the time being).

Stan

Labels: Animation, Future, Movies, Science

Signs of Things to Come

I was once picked up one night by the police for driving my moped on a Motorway. I had turned off at a busy junction that had lights and signs everywhere, and I was confused. The police told me that 'The signs were large enough to see so I should not have made the mistake', then let me off with a caution.

The next night I went to the junction again to see why I had missed the signs; In spite of looking at a huge sign showing the directions, I couldn't read anything because lights from the other signs reflecting on each other made several of them unreadable.

I doubt whether that excuse would have stood up in Court, but at the time I thought there must be a better way of helping drivers. There is; you can see it at
http://www.spiegel.de/international/spiegel/0,1518,448747,00.html

Briefly, it is to do away with signs, signals, and the plethora of flashing commands that distract rather than help drivers. Hopefully the next stage will be to cut down on the animated adverts that now decorate bus stops, shop signs, and poster sites.

Another way to help drivers is get more people off the road. We all know that is 'other drivers' who are the cause of all traffic problems. Well, animation plays its part there as well. Software originally designed for Morphing is used for Face Recognition and prevents banned drivers from applying for licences under another name.

I remember a 'Columbo' detective plot from the 1970s where a driver's alibi was that he could not have been at the scene of the crime as he had been caught on a traffic camera for crossing a red light. He had an accomplice wear a photo of his face, and deliberately cross the lights.

Of course, Columbo caught him out because photos reflect light in a different way to faces. But imagine what it will be like when traffic cameras use facial recognition so your number plate, car make, and face are all recognised in one go. It would even have Big Brother looking over his shoulder.

Stan

Labels: Future, Movies, Science

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Fairy Tales

Hot on the heels of yesterdays Blog about writing for animation, todays news at http://www.slashfilm.com/article.php/20061117top10animated reinforces my views.
This is a review of Warner Bros 'Happy Feet', which I haven't seen, but you can get a taste of at http://www2.warnerbros.com/happyfeet/.

I was always a great Warner Bros fan. Their cartoons were obviously aimed at adults; how many kids really get the point of Bugs Bunny gags? Writing for adults and designing for children is a classic formula in animated movies.

There was a time when Fairy Tales were written as moral tales to warn the young and the unholy of the evils of the world, and the punishment awaiting the wrongdoers. With the passing of time, the messages got lost - or did they?

The theme of so many Animated features is the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, which translates into 'The Good' (and beautiful), 'The Bad and Ugly'; we know that bad people are ugly because so many classic animated movies have told us so. True the Queen in Snow White was beautiful, but actually ugly inside, on the other hand in 'Beauty and the Beast', the Beast is beautiful inside.

But there are exceptions. Baloo the Bear in Jungle Book is lovely, if not beautiful. We have beauty competitions, but we don't have 'Lovely' competitions. The problem is we can't measure niceness.

What we can measure to a limited extent is how interesting a person is, and more importantly how close they are to ourselves. I note that Social Networking sites are increasingly using animation to attract attention and say "Hey, look at me, I may not be beautiful but I'm fun".

It may be a very subtle thing that animation is used in this personal way, but I'm sure it's the toe in the door. You can already buy avatars to sell your goods and services, I guess you'll be able to buy them to sell yourself - if it hasn't already been done.

Stan

Labels: Animation, Cartoons, Movies, Scriptwriting

Friday, November 17, 2006

Tail Wags Dog Makes News

The downside of being a scriptwriter is that you mentally rewrite movies as you are watching them. Unlike a novel, a film script - as presented by the writer - is unlikely to survive in a recognisable form once it is handed over to the Producer.

This is because just about everyone working on a movie thinks the writing part is basically inspired day dreaming rather than a craft, and will add their two-cents worth if they get the chance. I once worked with a Producer who took a script credit just for changing the title!!!

Of course, there are movies that do not require much of a script. 'James Bond' is one that comes to mind. Everyone knows the story before they see it; it really a matter for the Special Effects dept to come up with the goods.

And as Animated movies have drifted away from simple storylines, there is more accent on SFX now, so it was with some interest I noted the article http://www.jeffpidgeon.com/2006/11/animation-glut-stories-is-there-glut.html which suggests the tide has turned, and that audiences have seen it all when it comes to 'All action No story' content.

But on the other hand another article at http://www.animationmagazine.net/article.php?article_id=6151 deal with Warner Bros merging its Special Effects dept with the main film units. The logic is that if SFX plays such a big part in action movies they are 'The Star', so there is a thin line between producing effects for a Production Company, and being the Production Company. The tail is wagging the dog, and it likely to continue.

Where will it end? The merging of Animation and Live-Action has passed the point where the audience is entertained simply by SFX. No doubt Production Companies looking for the next trend in blockbusters will - as a last resort - turn to looking for good stories. I can't wait.

Stan

Labels: Animation, Computer Animation, Movies, Scriptwriting

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Air Guitar

Happy Birthday World Wide Web - 16 today - and like all teenagers - confident of going onwards and upwards but not quite sure where. I was over 60 when the Web was born, but cannot now imagine what life would be like without it.

Just today I came across yet another marvel; A T-Shirt that you can don and play Air Guitar.
There have been other 'computerised' Air Guitars, which work on the basis of Motion Graphics as used for 3D animation, but this one uses Intelligent Textiles; similar in principle but more sophisticated. In this Blog of 20th October, I reported on a T-shirt with a built in screen, so we are getting close to becoming walking computers.

My interest in the Air Guitar is that I am a strummer myself and use guitar programs that teach by having animated scales and chords. I have seen robots that play piano quite well, and knew of someone who used a midi-keyboard to operate theatre lighting.

One of my pet themes is to be able to create movies in the way one can write scripts. It requires some form of visual input device rather like the above T-Shirt instead of the network of attached wires used in Motion Graphics. Perhaps future T-shirt will have on them 'Been there, done that, now watch the Movie'.

Stan

Labels: Computers, Internet, Movies, Music, Sound

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Future Shock

How would you like to see what the future holds for you? Well you can - in a sort of way that is. A program with the springtime name of APRIL lets you see what you might look like at some distant time; the Christmas of your life.

Forensic animation has been used for a while to help visualise missing people and see what they might look like after some years. It's also used to see what dead people might have looked like alive. A gruesome subject but one that will play an increasingly useful role in changing our behaviour if the health authorities have their way.

The above program can indicate what you will look like in a few years if you choose a decadent life style. I recently saw examples of it on TV when certain celebrities who punish their bodies in various ways from drug taking to excessive fitness regimes were shown as they are now, and how they will be in twenty years time. I can image a sneering image of ones aged self staring back from the screen and saying "Look what you've done to me you idiot".

The program would have obvious uses in the Movie world to show how actors might age in a role. It might also have a slightly more sinister use if we secretly checked out how our partners might look in the future.
I know that similar programs have been used to morph the faces of parents to show what their unborn child might look like, but have never seen whether this actually works.

Of course this does put an emphasis on beauty, and we intuitively feel that two beautiful parents will produce a beautiful child, but apparantly not, though 'beautiful' parents do tend to have 36% more chance of having a girl child. I'm not sure what it all means, but animators looking for new directions in the industry might check out beauty salons or mortuaries for vacancies.

Stan

Labels: Animation, Computers, Future, Movies, Science

Friday, November 10, 2006

Being Funny

I understand that Science has seven big fundamental questions of the order 'How did Life start'. I can't remember what the other six are, but one of them must surely be 'Why are some people funny and others not'. I am happy to say that Science has now solved this problem, with the little help from its animation friends and a morphing program.

"The characteristics of a feminine face imply that the person may be agreeable and co-operative, which can be causal in our first impressions of comedians as being friendly and funny."
Dr Little used computer software to blend together 179 different facial aspects of 20 top comedians, resulting in the "perfect comedy face".
And picked Ricky Gervais as having the perfect comedy face - so that proves it.
Find out more at: "http://www.itv.com/news/entertainment_0e6a2a3f4a4578cb05bb63d81a59b4f7.html

I would like to see the system applied to Politicians, and a few others who we might put our trust in.

A recent study regarding 'Prejudices and what we look like' can be found at http://www.badscience.net/?p=219. It supports the obvious in that we are attracted to beautiful people, but that is partly because - as those of us in the movie business know - the good are beautiful and the bad are ugly. Disney made a mint out of it; and anyone working in the Animation industry is aware that a Cartoon's face is its fortune.

The constant reinforcement of what is Good and Bad stemming from the worlds of advertising, movies, and fashion may be conditioning our brains in a way that Religion did in history.

If computer games are making children violent then animation has a lot to answer for. On the other hand, if animation can define the 'Perfect Comedy Face' then perhaps there is a 'Perfect Tragedy Face', or a perfect face for any attribute you can think of.

It would certainly be handy for checking passport photos, Internet dating photos, and personal photos for our CV, but I can see the possibility of plastic surgery opening up new fields of expertise with body parts as yet unexplored.

Stan

Labels: Computers, Games, Movies, Psychology, Science

Man Bites God

A few posts ago I mentioned advances in movie projectors and referred to projecting onto clouds. One reader - Deborah Kelly - sent me an image of her work doing just that(http://www.bewareofthegod.com/?cat=9).

But what was of more interest was her work as an Activist-Artist.
Having 'Beware of the God' projected in Heaven seems a good way of getting the message across, bearing mind the recent trouble with the Prophet Mohammed cartoons published in Denmark. No one questions the power of Political cartoons; apart from their instant summing up of a situation, they are globally recognised. It is a power that has yet to reach its full potential.

The 'Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy' made the ultimate blasphemy of having God as a Super-computer - it is a belief that gains adherents daily - so it was interesting to note that scientists who build such machines are turning to animation for the next divine upgrade.

It seems that the chips that power computer games are currently the most powerful ones around, and will be the basis for the next Supercomputers, but they will not be for playing games, only rather boring things like curing diseases so the world become over-populated, and designing bombs to cure the problem.

As we all know, there is only one problem in the world - other people - and computer games at least allow us to live in virtual worlds where other people either live by our personal standards or get zapped for not trying. Someone - whose name escapes me for the moment - said "All the Worlds a stage". My guess is that it's a computer game, or soon will be.

Stan

ps. Some of you might be interested in http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?in_article_id=24217&in_page_id=2

Labels: Computers, Future, Games, Movies, Science

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Now You See It, Now You Don't

Back in the 1950s some experiments were done on using movies as anaesthetics with some success, but as far as I know this method was never used in hospitals.

While working at the Canadian Film Board in the early 1960s I met Norman McClaren, the experimental film maker, and asked if he thought films could be used in this way. I got a record on self-hypnosis, and he had some experimental films with concentric circles gradually shrinking. We put them together and showed the result. It made many people seasick!!!

I never pursued that line again, but later worked in advertising when Subliminal Advertising was tested. It was so successful that it was banned, or supposedly so, but one doesn't know if it actually was, but 'Placement Advertising' is perfectly legal, so in effect the method is still being used.

I have used it in animation as a Special Effect. If you want to create a disturbing image you can colour it with two very close colours and let them flicker. It is not visibly noticeable but mentally upsetting.

These ideas came to mind recently when reading about Spam mail. It seems one way to fool Spam filters is to have the background colour actually several very close colours.
You can write white text on a very slightly off-white background and mentally take it in without actually seeing it; a hi-tec invisible ink. And text can easily be implanted into an image. This is a common encryption method.

Forgetting Conspiracy Theories of us all being brainwashed, could such methods be used as anaesthetics? Could it be a way to control crowds with flashing lights? Could it be used in education? Whatever, there is no doubt that Animation has come a long way from funny cartoons.

Stan

Labels: Animation, Computers, History, Movies, Science

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Biometrics

Ideas are bit like buses, you wait for ages then three come along at once. One idea that has been around for quite a while is computer odor recognition. This week I saw a computer being used to transmit a smell using a PC. You click on an image of a flower or whatever, and the smell is transmitted.
My first thought - naturally - is how could that be used in animation? One idea would be to link it to animated Greeting cards for birthdays, Christmas, and the like.

My second thought is how could it be abused by hackers. Well, they could spam you with nasty smells I suppose, but smells might also be the ultimate password. Check
http://ezinearticles.com/?Biometrics---Customer-Friendly-Computer-Security&id=106788

Another problem is that smells aren't easy to pin down. You can say something smells like a rose, but what does a meadow smell like after the rain? You need an image of a meadow, and sorting images out has been another problem waiting to be solved, and perhaps it now has; or so they say at
http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2006/11/02/tech-imagetag-061101.html

The Gadget Show is the show to see for all those gadgets that you cannot imagine anyone buying. This week an inflatable church big enough to hold sixty people (could be a cinema), and yet another attempt to make a 360 degree cinema screen so that you feel you are in the centre of the action.
Of course, Multi-screens have been around for very many years, but the main problem is having projectors both small enough to fit into the cinema, and synchronising them. Both problems now easily solvable; it only requires suitable stories to make use of them now.

Stan

Labels: Computers, Movies, Science

Friday, October 27, 2006

Silent Voices

Have you ever had to get your movies translated into another language? Subtitles are not great because you miss the action while reading them. Dubbing is not all that good as it is usually obvious that the lips are not in sync with the sound. In live-action the background actors can sometimes get by saying 'Rhubarb, rhubarb' and making suitable gestures, but it's a problem yet to be solved.

As I am severely deaf, I have learnt to lip read to a limited extent. I never took lessons, but often watch TV with the sound off. It works OK with news readers but not so well with actors; so I am always interested in new ideas related to hearing.

One idea I read about yesterday at http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/mg19225755.800-its-the-next-best-thing-to-a-babel-fish.html describes a method whereby the speaker simply mouths the sounds in one language and it gets instantly translated into another language.

The method is not yet perfect, but the potential for the Movies is fantastic. As it depends on facial movements instead of sound, then an actor could be connected to many machines and do translations into dozens of languages at once. A step further would be to record the facial movements for a given actor and apply these to an avatar. For the technically minded you can look at http://www.mcrlab.uottawa.ca/papers/ACM-postr3.pdf dealing with Virtual Reality.

What will they think of next? Well, if you want to find out then take a look at Lip shapes .
If you just want to amuse yourself then try http://www.dookyweb.com/avatars.swf

Stan

Labels: Movies, Science, Sound

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Back to the Drawing Board

A couple of months ago I went to the Royal College of Art End of Year exhibition with some animation friends. We noted that there was much more traditional illustration and animation than in the previous years that had exploited new technology.

I wondered if 'Technology' has now been assimilated enough to the point where it is now taken for granted, and we could now get back to sweat and talent. I hope so because such work has more soul to it.

I was interested to note that this approach can still (and hopefully will continue) to be viable. The animated feature movie just released 'Romeo & Juliet - Sealed with a Kiss' is a full length feature animated by one man - Phil Nibblelink - made in 4 1/2 years using Flash animation. You can look it up at http://www.romeoandjulietfilm.com/

There is a growing call for movie makers to make their own movies, particularly for presenting Social problems. One site at http://www.google.com/educators/globalwarming.html is looking for ideas to solve global warming. If you are interested, a good place to start is Global Warming.

Stan

Labels: Animation, Art, Computer Animation, Movies

Make Movies Blog - v2.0

The World of Animation News, Trends, Problems, Work, Education,
and anything that moves frame-by-frame.

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Movie Database

Media Database

Friday, June 29, 2007

Audio Visual Database

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Film Data Base

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Robots and People

Monday, November 20, 2006

Animated Tattoos

Signs of Things to Come

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Fairy Tales

Friday, November 17, 2006

Tail Wags Dog Makes News

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Air Guitar

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Future Shock

Friday, November 10, 2006

Being Funny

Man Bites God

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Now You See It, Now You Don't

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Biometrics

Friday, October 27, 2006

Silent Voices

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Back to the Drawing Board

About Me

Links

Previous

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Make Movies

Make Movies Blog - v2.0 The World of Animation News, Trends, Problems, Work, Education, and anything that moves frame-by-frame.

Saturday, June 30, 2007

Movie Database

Media Database

Friday, June 29, 2007

Audio Visual Database

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Film Data Base

Sunday, November 26, 2006

Robots and People

Monday, November 20, 2006

Animated Tattoos

Signs of Things to Come

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Fairy Tales

Friday, November 17, 2006

Tail Wags Dog Makes News

Tuesday, November 14, 2006

Air Guitar

Sunday, November 12, 2006

Future Shock

Friday, November 10, 2006

Being Funny

Man Bites God

Wednesday, November 08, 2006

Now You See It, Now You Don't

Saturday, November 04, 2006

Biometrics

Friday, October 27, 2006

Silent Voices

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Back to the Drawing Board

About Me

Links

Previous

Archives

Make Movies

Make Movies Blog - v2.0

The World of Animation News, Trends, Problems, Work, Education,
and anything that moves frame-by-frame.